Development Log — Jérémie Tessier's website

t's like I thought, after creating gameplay systems, all I'm left for is creating content. Okay, that's a lot of work, and not all gameplay systems are done, but right now I'm just making room after room after room. I don't have a perfect memory in regards to Killer 7, so I'm not sure how big Angel is, but I'm still working on it. I just got to the second floor, and now I need to work on my map screen so you can click on different areas to see the map there.

I also fixed a bug with Collateral Shot that made it stay on the character if you shot and missed. I also changed Dan's Cockiness so that it's a toggle on/off instead of being a one use ability that you need to re-cast over and over. It's free anyways, so it's not like having the player use it all the time would be counter to its design tenants.

Time spent on the project so far: 115 hours
Currently working on: Working on the Angel map
Screenshot: First floor map in Unity

PostedSeptember 21, 2017

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Still working on soul shell and UI related stuff, didn't have much time today to work on the game, but this bit is almost done, I swear!

Time spent on the project so far: 114 hours
Currently working on: Acquiring the first soul shell

PostedSeptember 20, 2017

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Still working on that first soul shell, going through some audio choices, animating UI, that kind of stuff.

Time spent on the project so far: 113 hours
Currently working on: Acquiring the first soul shell
Screenshot: Soul Shell UI

PostedSeptember 19, 2017

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Today I worked on the Soul Shell UI and thinking about how I would store this data, I also wondered how I'll make it so you need to do specific things in order to progress - talking to Travis so he unlocks the car's trunk, for instance.

Time spent on the project so far: 112 hours
Currently working on: Acquiring the first soul shell

PostedSeptember 18, 2017

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Today I finished Mask's Shock Shell, an explosive attack that hits a whole row of enemies. Now that everything costing one vial of thin blood is done, I'm moving on to acquiring the first soul shell from the back of the car with Travis Bell in it. In opposition to the original game where you could only leave the elevator hall by the north exit when you've found the soul shell, I'm going to allow players to leave that way beforehand. I don't think I'll have much blocking that way. Spots where you need to solve a puzzle to progress will be cut off, of course, but I don't think I'll have this kind of arbitrary invisible wall.

Time spent on the project so far: 111 hours
Currently working on: Acquiring the first soul shell

PostedSeptember 15, 2017

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Today I worked on Kevin's Acid Rain ability and Mask's Shock Shell ability. I also fixed a bug with the duplicator smile. I think that tomorrow I'll be done with Shock Shell - I still have to work on its row-clearing ability. Then I'll work on the rest of Angel, promise!

Time spent on the project so far: 110 hours
Currently working on: More character special abilities

PostedSeptember 14, 2017

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Today I worked on in-battle abilities, like healing and special powers for Garcian and Kevin. I'll still need to finish that one (and Mask's) and I'll be done with that bit of the game!

Time spent on the project so far: 109 hours
Currently working on: More character special abilities

PostedSeptember 13, 2017

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I took a small break for 'A Game By Its Cover 2017' but now I'm back on Killer 2017. Yesterday and today I've worked on the Mach Speed ability, which allows Con Smith to teleport to any previously visited Harman Room. I'm still wondering if that could break progression somewhere, but I'll deal with that issue when I get there. Tomorrow I'll add the few battle abilities that I'm missing right now, and then move on with the story!

Time spent on the project so far: 108 hours
Currently working on: More character special abilities
Screenshot: Harman room selection

PostedSeptember 12, 2017

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Today I've worked on character initialization, collectible initialization and basic movement. You can now move the titular Layer Lady left and right and collect coins and Game Box Entertainment Systems in order to create more layers. The scoring system also works, so you can try to go for the high score! Now all that's left is for me to create a bunch of levels and interesting mechanics and this will be over! This is still the bulk of the work, so I'm not out of the woods yet!

PostedSeptember 8, 2017

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Today I mainly worked on the core layering mechanics I'll be using in Layer Lady and I also more or less figured out what the main loop of the game will be. The main idea is that - as I had thought beforehand - you'll be moving multiple characters simultaneously in different environments, trying to collect as many coins as possible.

PostedSeptember 7, 2017

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Here I am this year again participating to the A Game By Its Cover jam, hosted on itch.io at https://itch.io/jam/a-game-by-its-cover-2017. Last year, you might remember that I had made Gear Link, based on the Item Connect famicase cart. This year, my game will be named Layer Lady, and it's based on this cart right there.

PostedSeptember 6, 2017

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These last days I've worked on some skills that cost 1 thin blood vial to use. Collateral Shot was created in order to defeat the first Duplicator Smile, then I've worked on the out-of-combat abilities that you'll be able to use. I still have two of those to create, then a few in-battle abilities as well.

Starting tomorrow, I'm working on another game for an online game jam, so this will be on pause for about a week, maybe two!

Time spent on the project so far: 106 hours
Currently working on: More character special abilities

PostedSeptember 5, 2017

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Today I've started working on the base for the Duplicator Smile fight. With the Camellia down, players can now have one vial of thin blood, so I was wondering whether I should code 1-vial abilities. Maybe I'll do that next, but right now it's the Duplicator Smile fight. In Killer 2017, the Duplicator has something called 'Green Armor' that can be pierced with Dan Smith's Collateral Shot and destroyed outright with Mask De Smith's Shock Shell. I'm still not sure if I'll make it so you can miss with these abilities, but that's a question for another day!

Next week I'll take a - voluntary this time - break from Killer 2017 to participate in the A Game By It's Cover jam.

Time spent on the project so far: 103 hours
Currently working on: Fight against the Duplicator Smile

PostedSeptember 1, 2017

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Today I've improved the map screen a bit - you can drag it around to see all the rooms, if they go outside of the boundaries of the map - and I've tweaked the blood effect when you hit/kill enemies a bit. Now that the first Camellia Smile fight is done, I have to make the intermediary room and the fight against the Duplicator Smile.

Time spent on the project so far: 102 hours
Currently working on: More maps in Angel
Screenshot: KAEDE Smith critically hitting the Camellia Smile

PostedAugust 31, 2017

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Today I worked mostly on adding new maps to Angel, and the Camellia Smile fight. I had forgotten that after you defeat the big smile guarding the soul shell you have to backtrack and that another way is opened to you. That mechanic - having ways that are blocked and get unlocked later on - wasn't programmed yet, but I'll get to it!

Time spent on the project so far: 101 hours
Currently working on: More maps in Angel, Camellia Smile

PostedAugust 28, 2017

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Today I made the voice of Travis Bell, I also added three new rooms - two in the elevator lobby and the first room of the parking lot. Now I have to make the Camellia Smile fight. I'm not sure how I'll make it for Killer 2017. I was thinking that the Camellia Smile would do nothing until you attack it, then it would run away in a small number of turns. Maybe make it extra-weak to critical strikes too. We'll see tomorrow!

Time spent on the project so far: 100 hours
Currently working on: More maps in Angel, Camellia Smile

PostedAugust 24, 2017

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After completing the revival minigame, I'm continuing my work on maps for the first level. I could've gone and implemented Deadly difficulty already, but that's not super important at this point. I need to keep pushing through maps and content so that the first level gets done at some point!

Time spent on the project so far: 99 hours
Currently working on: More maps in Angel

PostedAugust 23, 2017

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Worked on the revival minigame today. It's 99% complete and I still need to fix a bug about the life bar being filled as you click to revive your character. The time you have to click is still left to be changed, and I think that it'll be variable depending on the difficulty level and if you've selected Killer2017 or Killer2018 mode. Maybe tomorrow I'll implement a few of the difficulty changes - since you can select the difficulty when you start a new game already. Otherwise I'll create more rooms!

Time spent on the project so far: 98 hours
Currently working on: Work on revival process
Screenshots: Revival completion

PostedAugust 22, 2017

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On the last few days I've worked on death; having corpses stay in the environment where your characters have died, the game over screen and today I've started working on revival. In the original Killer 7, Garcian took the head of the slain character and brought it back to a TV room where the revival was performed. I feel that this is a step too much; In Killer2017, Garcian will be able to revive another pesona right there and now, and switch to it afterwards. I tried thinking if this would break something in the game, but I don't think so.

The revive minigame will be a bit different too, you'll be timed and the amount of health recovered will vary depending on how fast you clicked!

Time spent on the project so far: 97 hours
Currently working on: Work on revival process
Screenshots: Dead character, game over screen, corpse, revival screen

PostedAugust 21, 2017

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Today I've worked on what happens when Garcian dies. I have to admit that I didn't remember what the game over screen in Killer 7 looked like, but now it's starting to get made in Killer2017. I debated a bit whether I should add it or not - after all, I could just kick the player back to the loading menu when they game over, which wouldn't be the craziest thing in the world - but I felt in the end that it's a part of Killer 7, and I want this fangame to be representative of the original in as many ways as I can.

Time spent on the project so far: 94 hours
Currently working on: Work on game over screen

PostedAugust 18, 2017

AuthorJérémie Tessier

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